US government shutdown blocks USDA reports, creating an information vacuum for global agricultural markets

greater impact, as markets are in a phase of heightened volatility. The USDA’s Economic, Statistics, and Market Information System website has stopped updating, with the latest official data dated September 28. The absence of the October WASDE report, which was scheduled for release on October 9, has created an information vacuum at the global level. The report served as the only open source covering nearly all major agricultural markets — from North America to South Asia. Other analytical institutions, such as Rabobank, Refinitiv, Gro Intelligence, and the International Grains Council (IGC), continue to publish their own estimates, but their models focus mainly on specific regions and sectors. For their “home” markets, these models often yield accurate results; however, at the intersection of regions or for more distant markets, the margin of error rises significantly. In addition, their data is less public and harder for international traders to use efficiently. As a result, ...